Frostquake

Nicolson makes social history feel like reading the best and most gripping novel. A beautiful, wholly original book – India Knight
A brilliant concept transformed into a brilliant and revelatory book. Completely fascinating and engrossing – William Boyd
As gripping as any thriller, Frostquake is the story of a national trauma that came out of nowhere and changed us forever. Brilliantly written and almost eerily relevant to our current troubles – Tony Parsons
An engagingly written mixture of social history and memoir – Trevor Phillips * Sunday Times *
Fascinating, quirky and evocative … Nicolson takes us right back to that muffled, snowbound world – Ysenda Maxtone Graham * Daily Mail *
An entertaining panorama of life in Britain during the original “beast from the east” … [Nicolson’s] striking hypothesis … explores the impending social revolution from many angles … out of catastrophe can come change for good: a social revolution in 1963; perhaps an environmental awakening in 2021 – Richard Morrison * The Times BOOK OF THE WEEK *
Juliet Nicolson’s new book is a treasure trove… beautifully written. Nicolson uses the imagery of freeze and thaw as a metaphor for the new Britain that was being born, a conceit as elegant in its execution in its conception – Alwyn Turner * BBC History Magazine *
Juliet Nicolson’s timely study of that pivotal winter in British history has so many parallels with today that it occasionally sends a shiver down your spine … Her own memories of the turbulent months before and after that day are the thread that hold this beautifully stitched patchwork of stories together … convincing, poetic and often very touching – Marcus Field * Evening Standard *
In this lively chronicle Juliet Nicolson, who was eight years old at the time, argues that the winter of 1962-63 marked a turning point in society, with Britain’s social conventions beginning to burst apart at the seams. With cameos from Joanna Lumley and Harold Evans, and a nod to imminent Beatlemania, Nicolson buoyantly contends that out of devastation good can come * New Statesman *
Nicolson aims to do much more than present a charming word picture of the freakish winter of 1962-63 … where Frostquake triumphs is as a metaphor – a network of images that describes how Britain was beginning to unfreeze from the 50s – Kathryn Hughes * Guardian *

Juliet Nicolson is the bestselling author of three works of social history: The Perfect Summer- Dancing into Shadow in 1911; The Great Silence- 1918-1920 Living in the Shadow of the Great War; and Frostquake- The frozen winter of 1962 and how Britain emerged a different country; as well as a family memoir, A House Full of Daughters. She is a mother and a grandmother and lives with her husband in East Sussex.

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